From Record archives: Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa, March 2003

Friday

Feb 16, 2018 at 12:01 AM

Friends and neighbors remember Joseph Menusa as a model Marine, polite and friendly, professional and patriotic.

Record staff and wire reports

Friends and neighbors remember Joseph Menusa as a model Marine, polite and friendly, professional and patriotic.
The 33-year-old Tracy resident and Marine Corps gunnery sergeant is the first soldier from San Joaquin County to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Relatives were told Friday of his shooting death.
A small, silk-flower memorial with a photograph of Menusa encircles a tree in his parents’ Tracy yard. A vase of red roses sits at the base of the tree.

Neighbors said they were shocked at the news. Ron Eusanio, whose family has lived next to Menusa’s parents, Michael and Virginia Kenny, for 13 years, said he had talked about the war with Menusa a few months ago.

“He said that it would probably happen, but he thought he would stay here, because he was basically a (Marine) recruiter. It was a real shock to hear that he was in Iraq and had died,” Eusanio said.

Eusanio and his wife, Dolores, were at a party the family hosted when Menusa returned from fighting in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The party was on Menusa’s 21st birthday.

“He was very clean-cut, very polite and very humble. Just everyone’s idea of a Marine,” Ron Eusanio said.

The neighbors have been in contact with Menusa’s parents, who left this weekend for Santa Maria, home of Menusa’s parents-in-law. Menusa’s wife, Stacy, and 3-year-old son, Joshua, had been visiting in Santa Maria.

“We spoke to his parents today, and they’re doing better. They were incredibly upset yesterday. It’s just a terrible thing,” Dolores Eusanio said.

Stacy Menusa said she last spoke with her husband by phone Feb. 27, 14 days after his birthday.

“He said he was doing all right, his morale was high. He missed us and couldn’t wait to see us. He wasn’t down. He kept telling me he was there to do his job.”

She learned of his death at 10:30 a.m. Friday but was not told the specific circumstances. He had told her that, as second in command of his platoon, his job was to secure oil wells.

Joseph Menusa was assigned in January to the 1st Combat Engineering Battalion, based at Camp Pendleton, and left Feb. 5 for the Middle East.

Stacy Menusa said she last received a letter from her husband March 22, while he was in Kuwait.

She said she never thought he would be in danger until recently.

“It didn’t really even hit me he was over there and it was hostile until the bombing of Baghdad started. Then I got scared: ‘OK, this is real now,’ “ she said. “I never thought it would be my Marine.”

The Menusas met at a Santa Maria party in 1992, shortly after Joseph Menusa had fought in the Persian Gulf War. His wife recalled one story he told about his time in that war: He awoke to a loud sound outside his bunker and grabbed his gun. The noise turned out to be a camel.

During his military career, he was stationed at Twentynine Palms in the Mojave Desert; Hawaii; Okinawa, Japan; and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before moving to Tracy.

For the past three years, he was a Marine recruiter in Livermore, Hayward and Fremont.

The 14-year veteran was born in the Philippines and moved with his mother to San Jose when he was 10. He graduated from Silver Creek High in 1989, then joined the Marines. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton, with responsibilities that included demolition and construction.

Stacy Menusa said that before he left for Iraq, her husband had told her not to worry, that he would come home.

“He died with honor and he loved the Corps. He loved his family, and if he had to do it over again, he wouldn’t change a thing,” Stacy Menusa said. “He’ll be sorely missed. The Corps lost a good man.”

Joseph Menusa also is survived by three brothers: David Menusa of San Diego; and Jeff Kenny and Danny Kenny, both of Tracy.

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